The present invention relates to storage system virtualization, and more specifically, this invention relates to configuring storage systems for virtualization, especially storage area network (SAN) volume controller (SVC) virtualization.
Storage system virtualization is an important aspect of modern data storage, and requires precise configuration to ensure the storage system operates efficiently. According to conventional architectures, enabling virtualization for a storage system, especially a SAN, requires an administrator to manually configure and initialize the storage system.
However, manual configuration and initialization is a complex process involving multiple steps and calculations, and administrators often omit certain steps, commit errors in the course of performing various calculations and/or make improper estimates (e.g. regarding appropriate amount of storage to assign to various pools in the SAN).
In addition, the manual configuration process is significantly cumbersome since the administrator must separately configure each individual array in the SAN, increasing the likelihood that configuration will be performed incorrectly (e.g. the administrator may skip a particular array, forget to configure a particular array, become confused as to the characteristics of a particular array being configured and thus commit errors in configuring the array, etc.).
Accordingly, it would be of significant benefit to provide systems and techniques for autonomic configuration of storage system virtualization, in order to improve the function of the storage system by ensuring appropriate configuration settings are employed.